


Soulmates

by pcworth



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 10:18:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pcworth/pseuds/pcworth
Summary: Basically Emma asks Tink if she will use fairy dust on her to determine who her soul mate is. Just wanted to have a little fun with this one.





	1. Chapter 1

Emma sat in Granny's eating a bear claw and being utterly depressed. It had been a week and she still couldn't believe that Killian had broken up with her.

If she had broken up with him, that she would have been able to handle because it would have been her choice at least. It's not as if she disagreed with him that their relationship was going no where – she had felt the same way for some time now – but that still didn't mean she appreciated being dumped.

"Want a refill?" Ruby asked holding up the coffee pot.

"Sure, why not."

Ruby filled her cup and then took a seat across the table from her best friend.

"Still sad."

"I don't even know if sad is the right word for it," she said. "More like in a state of complete disbelief that this is my life."

"I think we all feel that way at some point."

"Probably. It's just. I know I am only in my 30s but I sort of feel like I should have a more successful relationship by now. You know one that would lead somewhere."

"Look at this way, if you had grown up back home, as princess you probably would have been married by the time you were 18 or 19."

"Ugh."

"Yes. But at least your parents wouldn't have done one of those arranged marriages. They love each other and you are the product of true love so they want the same with you, which meant there was no way they would have just married you off."

"Yeah, this whole true love thing, I don't get it. The idea there is this one person in life you are supposed to be with. I mean what if you never actually meet that person? Does that mean you will never truly be happy?"

"I see we have reached the deeply spiritual phase of the break up," Ruby smiled. "Look I don't know if anyone really knows how it all works. I think people just meet and they fall in love. There is no reason or logic behind it. Outside of fairy dust I don't think there is ever away to know until it happens to you."

"Fairy dust?"

"Yes, fairies can use it to show a person their soul mate or so they say. I am not sure how it works, probably because I am not a fairy. I got to get back to work, are you sure you are ok?"

"I am fine, really. I just need a little more depressy time and then I will snap out of it."

"Good to hear."

Emma continued to sit there for a while before finally leaving but the conversation with Ruby stuck in her mind for days. Finally she went to the one person who she thought might be able to give her the answer she was looking for.

It took a little while to work up the confidence (and to find out where she lived) to approach Tink. The idea of this fairy dust was something she couldn't stop thinking about so there she was on Wednesday night knocking on her door.

"Emma?" Tink said when she answered the door, clearly unsure as to why the sheriff was at her door.

"Hey," Emma said. "I was wondering if we could talk for a moment."

"Sure," Tink said moving out of the way so Emma could come in.

Emma entered and Tink offered a seat on the couch while Tink sat in the chair. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Fairy dust."

"Fairy dust? Ok, what about it?"

"I was talking to Ruby the other day and she was saying that fairy dust could be used to help someone find their soul mate. Is that true?"

Tink considered the question and Emma for the moment. "It doesn't exactly help them find them, so much as reveal who the person is when you come in contact or see them. Why are you asking?"

Emma shrugged, "I was sort of wondering if you had any that you could use to help me figure out who I am supposed to be with."

"Oh," Tink said. "Do you mind if I ask why you want that?"

"I just feel like I should know if there is someone out there for me. I am tired of having these relationships that don't go anywhere. I am not saying I want to settle down and get married tomorrow or anything like that. But if I do have a soul mate I would like to know who it is so maybe we can at least start exploring a relationship. I don't think it's a bad thing that I want to know, that I want what my parents have and others have. I want to be happy."

Tink nodded. "I do have some fairy dust and I don't mind using it in that manner, but I feel I should explain to you how it works first."

"Ok."

"Again it doesn't help you find them in the sense that it guides you to them. You aren't going to magically know your soul mate is on the western end of town or anything like that so you can go seek them out. The way it works is I would sprinkle some in your eyes and then as you go about your life, if you see your soul mate it will be revealed to you. Some people have said that they see a light surrounding the person, or they actually see the person's heart beating. I think it's different for everyone. But you will know that is the person. Now the other thing is, it could be someone you know already."

"Really? How is that possible and I wouldn't already know that there is something there."

"That is why it gets sprinkled in your eyes, because sometimes you don't really see something that is right in front of you. It reveals what is in your heart, not what is in your mind, if that makes any sense."

"No, that makes sense, although I find it hard to believe I have actually met my soul mate already."

"Here is the final thing and where it might get a little tricky. While the fairy dust reveals who your soul mate is to you, it doesn't reveal it to them. In other words, you have to do the work at that point as the other person won't know."

"Well hopefully since we are soul mates there won't be a lot of work involved," Emma said. "Now does it like last until I find the person or do I need to come back for a refill?"

"If I do this, it's a one time thing. I don't have enough fairy dust to spare for another hit of it."

"So how long will it work for?"

"Two maybe three days at the most."

"That doesn't leave a lot of time, especially if my soul mate isn't here in Storybrooke, but outside of it."

"It's the best I can offer. Are you still interested?"

"Yes."

…..

Emma was beyond frustrated at this point. It was Friday evening and she had yet to find her soul mate. She had gone on patrols all around Storybrooke, gone to bars, gone to the library, gone everywhere she could think of in order to discover the person's identity.

She had struck out completely.

The fairy dust would wear off later tonight or tomorrow and Emma had come to the conclusion that her soul mate, if she had one, was not in Storybrooke.

She had gotten off of work and was headed to pick up Henry for the weekend. They were going to spend part of their day tomorrow with her parents – out in the woods, which wasn't really Emma's idea of fun. But Snow had wanted to teach Henry some of her tracking techniques and how to shoot a bow when Henry had expressed an interest in learning. They decided to make it a family outing.

She pulled into Regina's driveway and went to the door. She was about to ring the bell when Henry opened the door.

"Hi mom, I saw you pull up."

"Ready to go."

"Yeah," he said, and they turned and walked to the car.

"Henry!"

Emma turned as she heard Regina call Henry's name as Regina came closer handing Henry something, Emma couldn't take her eyes off of her. It was like there was some glowing gold aura around the other woman that was shining not brightly, but warmly.

"Mom?" Henry said tugging on her sleeve.

"Huh, what?" Emma said looking at him and then back to Regina.

"Are you feeling ok Miss Swan?" Regina asked.

"Um, yeah I feel fine, yeah fine."

Regina looked at Henry, "Have fun this weekend and try not to shoot anyone or Bambi."

"It was actually Bambi's mother that got shot," Henry said.

Regina just smiled at him and walked back into the house. Emma watched her the entire way as the gold aura never disappeared.

"Mom, are you sure you are ok?" Henry asked when she saw Emma staring at his other mother.

"Yeah kid I am ok," she said turning back to the car. She got in behind the wheel and waited for Henry to get in and buckle up.

The entire drive home she could only think of one thing – her soul mate was Regina.


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you ok?" Charming asked his daughter.

"Yeah," Emma said keeping her eyes on Henry as Snow was helping him shoot a bow.

"It's just that you seem distracted, and have so all day," he said.

"It's nothing," Emma smiled at him, hoping that would end the conversation. The truth was, she was completely distracted.

Ever since last night when she picked up Henry and saw that golden glow around Regina and came to realization that the other woman was her soul mate, it was the only thing she could think of.

Her soul mate.

It seemed unfathomable to her. Impossible even. Yet she remembered Tink's words about the fairy dust showing you what was in your heart and now what was in your mind.

Could she really have feelings for Regina?

The two women had only really just started to become friends.

These were the kinds of thoughts that had kept her up all night long.

At one point she had convinced herself that not only was Regina not her soul mate but that fairy dust didn't work properly in this world anyway so it was foolish to even try it. Then an hour later she was convinced of the opposite.

What was she going to do was the prevailing thought in her head now. Did she say something to Regina? Did she leave it alone entirely?

What did one do when they had found their soul mate yet it was painfully obvious that the other person didn't see them that way?

Sunday night

Emma was nervous as she drove to drop Henry back off at Regina's place. She hadn't seen the other woman since she had picked Henry up. All weekend her thoughts were consumed by Regina. Every time she thought she had stopped thinking about her, another thought would pop into her head about her.

When she had first come to town she had refused to let Regina intimidate her, now that is all she felt – intimidation.

There really wasn't a reason for Emma to do anything other than park her car and let Henry out. She didn't have to escort Henry up to the door or anything like that, yet that is exactly what she ended up doing.

She told herself she just wanted to see Regina in person and see if there was anything different about it now that she had used the fairy dust.

She wasn't expecting any difference.

They got to the door and Henry just opened and went in. Emma paused there on the porch unsure of what to do. Finally, she stepped inside.

Regina was right there apparently in the process of asking Henry how his weekend was when she noticed Emma.

"Miss Swan, is there something wrong?" Regina asked. She was clearly wondering why Emma was in her house.

"No," Emma said putting her suddenly sweaty hands in her back pockets. "I just thought I should pop in and let you know that Henry did great this weekend."

"Is that so?" Regina said looking at Henry. "Did you hit your targets then?"

"Some of them. It's not as easy as it looks."

"I imagine it's not, but then again I have never seen the need to learn."

"You could if you wanted to," Emma said. "I mean I am sure my mom would teach you."

Regina gave her a curious look. "Somehow I don't see your mother and I bonding over archery, but thanks."

"Well, I should get going."

"Actually, before you go, do you think you could keep Henry on Thursday night this week instead of Friday night?"

"Sure. Big time city business going on or something?"

Regina looked at Henry and then back at Emma. "Actually, I have a date on Friday night."

"With who?" The desperation in her voice was a little more vocal than she intended it to be.

"Will Scarlet."

"Will asked you out?"

"Don't sound so shocked Miss Swan," Regina said; a touch of annoyance in her voice.

"No, it's not that. I mean of course he would, anyone would. I was just surprised because Will doesn't really seem your type."

"And what would my type be exactly?"

"Um, I don't know someone that takes life a little more seriously than Will does."

"Thankfully I don't need your opinion about my love life Miss Swan," she said. "Just pick Henry up after school on Thursday ok?"

"Yeah," she said backing up. "See you then kid."

She walked out to her car and sat there a moment in disbelief.

"Oh hell no," she said as she pulled out of the driveway. There was no way she going to allow Will Scarlet to go on a date with Regina.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma didn't really have any idea of what to do. All she knew is that she couldn't get Will date Regina. She was sure this was some weird rebound thing from the whole Marian-Robin Hood thing. When she looked at it that way, it sort of made sense – maybe Regina was just trying to hold onto a piece of Robin by dating one of the Merry Men.

Will had actually settled down from his initial time in Storybrooke as far as Emma could tell. He was a legitimate business owner in fact, having opened up a bar, which he appropriately called The Knave.

On Wednesday night, she entered it hoping to speak to Will. She wanted to get a sense of what Will's angle was in all of this because she was sure he had one and if she could prove it then that would put an end to any date. Emma went to the bar and took a seat, but she didn't see Will around anywhere. She ordered herself a tall draft and decided she would wait for a bit to see if he would show up, if not she would simply ask the bartender.

Her beer was part way done and she was sure this was a mistake when she saw Will emerge from a door near the end of the bar. To her surprise he came directly over to her and sat down – motioning to the bartender to bring him a drink.

"Off duty sheriff?"

"Obviously," she said holding up her beer.

He pointed to the mirror behind the bar – "Two-way mirror. I saw you and thought I would see what brings you in here. I am fairly certain you haven't been here before. I like to keep track of people's comings and goings."

"That's probably a smart idea. It is indeed the first time I have been in here. I thought I would check it out. It seems like you are doing well for yourself from what I have heard."

"From what you have heard, are you checking up on me sheriff?" he said, giving her a smile which she had to force herself to return.

"Not really," she responded. "Small town, people talk, especially when new businesses get started. You got yours up and running rather quickly."

"I wish I could take the credit for that, but I can't."

Will was the type to take credit for himself from what she could tell so the admission surprised her.

"Who deserves the credit?" she asked taking a sip of her beer.

"Regina."

Emma started to cough as she choked for a moment on her beer. Once she calmed down, she looked at him. "Regina?"

"Yeah, this world comes with an awful lot of paperwork. You need permits for like every thing and a liquor license. Anyway, I thought if I went to the mayor I might be able to get around all of this red tape, but she wasn't about to let me cut any corners. Still, she scheduled off some time and helped me fill it all out and get it filed with the right offices."

"That was really nice of her."

"No kidding," he laughed. "I can certainly see why Robin fell for her."

"Regina has changed a lot for the better," Emma said. "There are some people who will never see that in this town, but for those of us that have seen it, it's great to see how far she has come."

Will gave her an appraisingly look which she didn't like so she turned her attention to her

beer, which was almost gone. He motioned to the bartender to bring Emma another.

"It's on the house," he said to her. "Let's grab a table."

He stood grabbing his own drink.

"I probably should get going," Emma said.

"The night is still young," Will said.

She didn't want to sit and chat with him, but she also hadn't figured out anyway to prevent that date from happening so she nodded. She grabbed her beer and followed him to a table nearby.

"You know sheriff, this is a small town and people do love to talk, especially in a bar. I got to say I wasn't sorry to hear about you and Hook breaking up. He comes in here once in a while and as much as I would like to kick him out Regina says I can't just go around doing things like that in this world. And she's right. I don't want to run an establishment like that. I don't want this to be some rowdy place. I want it to be a place where people feel good about coming to with their friends to enjoy a good time. In fact, next week I am starting karaoke on Wednesday nights."

Emma could hardly believe this was the same Will. He seemed to read that in her expression.

"Regina isn't the only one who has changed. Maybe that's what this town really is, a place where people can change their lives for the better."

"I can't argue with that. My life too has changed significantly for the better since coming here."

"See, you know exactly what I am talking about. Like I said people here talk. I've heard about you too, about how you weren't always on the right side of the law, but look at you now, you are the sheriff. Why don't we drink to that – to positive change."

He raised his glass and she felt obliged to clink glasses with him in a toast. Man, she thought, this would be so much easier if he was a completely unlikable guy.

"I know Regina told you that we were going on a date," Will said. "I gather you coming in here was some way for your to see that I am not out to hurt Regina or something. I get it, you two share custody of Henry so naturally you would be concerned about goings on around him. I am not a bad guy sheriff. I don't have anything nefarious planned and I wouldn't do anything that would bring harm to a child."

Emma was more than a little shocked that Will had made a connection with her coming there and his impending date with Regina. He thought it was because of Henry and while Henry was yes part of the equation – he wasn't the sole reason she was here.

She appreciated that Will was being straight with her, so she took a big drink of her beer and decided to return the favor.

"Regina and I do share a son so it would be natural that I would want to make sure that nothing bad happened to her or Henry. But that's not exactly why I am here," Emma said.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I have no intention of letting you go on that date with Regina."


	4. Chapter 4

Will looked at Emma and then started to laugh. "I didn't know you were a joker sheriff," he said.

She smiled at him coolly. "I wasn't joking. There is no way I am letting this date happen."

Will leaned back in his chair and considered Emma more carefully. "Dare I ask why you have a problem with me going on a date with Regina?"

"She isn't supposed to be with you, that is why."

"What do you mean?"

"I know for a fact that Regina has a soul mate, one she hasn't come to realize yet, and you Will Scarlet are not that person. So you see if you date Regina you will only be holding her back from who she should be with."

"And you know this for a fact?" Will smiled.

"I do."

"Then who is this soul mate?"

"That hardly matters. The only thing that matters is that it is not you."

"Let me get this straight. You expect me to just step aside and not pursue anything with Regina because she has a soul mate that apparently doesn't have the guts to come forward themselves and instead sends the sheriff to do their dirty work. Well sheriff, you can go back to this supposed soul mate and tell them until they decide to man up, I will be dating Regina."

He got up and walked away. Emma also stood and walked out without giving him another look. She gave him the chance to get out of this the easy way.

On Thursday night Emma went over to Regina's to pick up Henry. She waited at the door after ringing the bell and Henry answered it.

"Hey kid, is your mom here?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs. I was going to grab my stuff and say goodbye to her so we can go."

Emma stepped inside and closed the door behind her. "I am in no hurry; in fact I have something I want to talk to Regina about. You said she was upstairs?"

"In her room."

"Show me the way."

She followed Henry up the stairs and as they got to the top Regina was coming out of her room. "Miss Swan, what are you doing up here?"

"You know I prefer it when you call me Emma," she responded. "And I was hoping I could speak to you a moment, in private."

"Sure, we can go down to the den and speak."

"Oh, no need to go all the way down when we are up here already," she said walking toward the bedroom. "Here is fine."

She edged past the brunette who looked more than a little stunned. Regina recovered quickly and followed her into the room where Emma was looking around.

Regina cleared her throat, choosing not to comment on Emma looking around her room. "You wished to speak to me."

"Close the door."

Regina hesitated before shutting the door. "Is there something wrong concerning Henry?" she asked. She couldn't think of any other reason why Emma Swan would be in her room to speak to her.

"No," Emma said quickly. "You have a nice room."

"Thank you, but I hardly expect that is the reason you are here."

"It's not. Look, I wanted to apologize about the other day and my reaction to your date with Will. I can see where it may have given you the wrong impression. I think it's great that you are opening yourself up in that way."

"Is there a point to this?" Regina asked. The last person she wanted to discuss her dating life with was Emma.

"Just that I am sorry if you were offended by my reaction the other day. I don't want there to be ill will between us. I think you and I have finally reached a place where we can have a good relationship, a great relationship."

Regina crossed her arms, unsure as to what angle Emma was working here, but she was sure there was one.

"Have you decided what you are going to wear on your date?" Emma asked.

The question caught Regina off guard completely and she didn't answer as Emma walked toward her closet and opened it. Emma entered it and Regina was about to ask her what the hell she thought she was doing when Emma walked back out of it holding a red dress. "I think you should wear this," Emma said. "Red looks good on you."

"Miss Swan …"

"Emma."

"Emma, I agree that you and I have come a long way since we first met, but I don't think we are quite to the point where I will be asking you for fashion tips."

"Fair enough," Emma said putting the dress down on the bed. "But I think in this case you should take my advice. You will look amazing in red."

Emma went past her, opened the door as she called out to Henry. "Come on kid, let's roll."

Regina was still standing there in disbelief when Henry came up to her and gave her a hug before leaving. She heard the front door shut when they were gone and she turned back to the bed where the red dress lay. She went over and picked it up, intent on putting it back in the closet and forgetting all about the rather odd episode that just happened. As she walked by her full length mirror, she stopped and raised the dress up against her body considering it.

Emma waited until she got Henry to her place before telling him that on Friday night he would be staying with her parents.

"Do you have to work or something?"

"No, I have the night off, but I have something I need to do, and actually I want to talk to you about it." She sat down on the couch next to him. "What do you think about this date your mom has with Will Scarlet?"

"As long as she is happy that is all that matters."

"I agree. But you see Will isn't the one who is going to make her happy."

"How do you know that?"

"Because Will isn't her soul mate."

"Yeah, but Robin is with Marian."

"About that. I think we can all agree that I messed up a little bit with that bringing Marian here thing. Like I said before, I am not going to apologize for saving a life, but I am sorry for its affect on your mom. However, from what I understand Regina had her chance with Robin back in the Enchanted Forest when she was younger but she didn't take the opportunity then and with me changing things with bringing Marian here, well I don't think Robin is Regina's soul mate anymore."

"How do you know that?"

"That is where things get a little complicated. You see I went to Tink to see about getting some fairy dust from her. Ruby told me how it can be used to help someone find their soul mate."

"Are you going to help mom find hers?" Henry asked excitedly.

"Yes, although technically I have already found out who it is. It's getting Regina to see it and to accept that is going to be the difficult part."

"Who is it?"

"It's me."

"What?"

"I am your mom's soul mate. I used the fairy dust on myself and it led me to Regina."

"Does that mean you are in love with mom?"

"I like your mom. I think the whole love thing comes later, maybe after we actually go on a date. I tried to get Will to back out of the date, but he wasn't going for it, so I had to come up with another plan."

"What kind of plan?"

"I am going to hijack Will's date with Regina. The only person she is going to be going out with tomorrow night is me, which is why I need you to stay at your grandparents."

He considered this a moment. "What are you going to call your plan?"

She smiled, "I don't know. I hadn't given it any thought. What do you think I should call it?"

He thought about it a moment, "Operation Hawk because you are going to like swoop in like a hawk."

She laughed, "You are right, I am going to so that is perfect."

Emma was waiting in her patrol car outside of The Knave. Will stayed in a loft apartment above it and she waited for him to leave to go pick up Regina. When she saw him walk out she had to admit he was dressed rather nicely for the date. Too bad he would never make it there, she thought.

He got into his car and began to drive. "Time to start Operation Hawk," Emma said as she waited for him to turn down the next street before she pulled out and followed him. Once she got on the same street as him, she turned on her cruiser lights. He pulled off to the side and she did the same. She couldn't keep the smile off of her face as she approached his driver's side window.

"Good evening sheriff," he said.

"Good evening Will. I am going to need your license and registration."

"Is something wrong?"

"You did notice you have a headlight out right?"

"I did," he said. "Funny how it was find yesterday."

"Well these things do happen. You also didn't use a turn signal back there and you have a tail light out."

"Sheriff if this is some last-ditch effort to stop my date with Regina, I have to say it's kind of weak," he said handing over the documents.

"I will be right back, I just need to run these and make sure you everything is in order before I give you a ticket."

She walked back to her car and got in and took her time writing out a ticket. She returned to the window and handed him back his license and registration.

"I suggest you get your lights fixed," she said handing him the ticket before walking away.

Will raised his window back up, shaking his head and wondering what the point of that was as he threw the ticket onto the passenger side seat. He turned the key but the car didn't start. He tried it again and again, but nothing was working.

"Damn it," he cursed and he tried opening the door to get out and check but it wouldn't open. He pushed against it but it wasn't budging. He turned the key part way to get his electric windows to go down so he could climb out but even those weren't working.

"What the hell?" he said. He pulled his phone out to call for help, but even it was working now.

He looked out his window where Emma had pulled up along side of him. She was holding up her ticket book and pointing at it. He turned back to his passenger seat and picked up the ticket she had given him but he hadn't looked at.

It wasn't actually a citation he saw. He read the message she had written. "Sorry Will, but number one, don't mess with someone who has more knowledge of this world and cars than you do, not to mention someone who also knows magic. Not to worry, the magic will wear off in about five hours. Number two, this is me manning up. Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with my soul mate."

He could only look at her in disbelief as she pulled away.

Regina looked at herself in the mirror one last time before answering the door for her date. As she opened it she was met with a surprise.

"I told you that you would look amazing in red," Emma said.


	5. Chapter 5

"Miss Swan, what are you doing here?" Regina asked, clearly not amused.

"I am here to take you on a date."

"Did Will put you up to this because a practical joke isn't how I had hoped to start this date out?"

"No, he had nothing to do with this; if you don't count the fact that I sort of left him locked in his car so I could hijack this date."

Regina paused as if she wasn't sure what Emma had said. "Wait, what?"

Emma smiled. "We're going to be late for dinner if we keep this conversation going much longer."

"I am not going to dinner with you," Regina said. "Did you really do something to Will?"

"Come with me and we can talk about it."

Regina sighed. "Miss Swan …"

"You could start by calling me Emma."

"What have you done with Will?"

"Wouldn't a better question be why did I do something with Will?"

"Um ... fine, whatever, just tell me what is going on here."

"Ok, in the interest of this not taking anymore time than it already is, I am here to take you on a date. In order to do that I had to use some tactics that I am not overly proud of including using magic to temporarily, I repeat temporarily, keep Will out of the picture so that we can go on this date. So can we go because I sort of made reservations out of town which means we really need to get moving."

"Maybe you aren't hearing me well, I am not going to go out with you."

"Please."

"Miss Swan, even if I didn't already have a date with Will, what makes you think I would go out on a date with you?"

"Well I was hoping we could discuss why later, but I can see you are going to be stubborn, so here it goes. You are my soul mate."

Regina turned and slammed the door shut.

"Damn it," Emma said frustrated with herself. She went up and rang the door bell and then knocked on it when Regina didn't answer. She waited for 30 minutes before finally giving up and leaving.

She drove to where she had left Will, who was now napping in his car when she arrived. With a little touch of magic she unlocked the car and he got out.

"Shouldn't you be out on a date?" he asked, leaning against the car. She joined him next to it.

"Yeah, it didn't go well. She didn't seem to appreciate the gesture of me intruding on your date and the knowledge that I was her soul mate didn't go well either."

"You told her that you were her soul mate?"

"Yes."

"Wow Swan, you are an idiot."

"What?"

"Come on, let's go have a drink and I can explain it to you."

They went in to the bar and Will got them a couple of drinks. They were sitting at the same table they had previously.

"Where were we? Oh that's right, you are an idiot," Will said lifting his glass as if to toast with her. Emma didn't return the gesture and Will took a drink. He took another drink and Emma was quickly losing her patience.

"What? Whatever it is that you want to say, say it."

"Ok, I will," he said. "Did you really think telling her that you were her soul mate was the best play?"

"I didn't see much in the way of a choice. She wasn't going to let me take her on a date and I don't know, I thought maybe if she knew that then it would entice her to go with me."

"What was her reaction exactly?"

"She slammed the door as she went inside."

Will laughed. "I can't say I am surprised by that. Still this isn't a totally insurmountable position you are in. First of all, what you did with me out there, not cool and I can't imagine it made Regina all that happy. Secondly, you just saw what she went through with the whole Robin soul mate thing so mentioning that in the first five minutes is what made you an idiot."

"I wasn't thinking."

"That's your problem. Look, I know what people think of me – they think I don't take things super serious. When I wanted to open this place I am sure there were people who thought that it was the perfect business for me to open up or expected me to be drinking in my bar more than actually running it. Regina looked beyond all of that to help me get this started. Now you have to try and get her to see beyond you being an idiot in order to get her to date you. Lucky for you, I think I can help."

"And why would you do that, help me?"

"Because if Regina is your soul mate I wouldn't stand in the way of that. If you have had perhaps been upfront with me from the beginning we could have avoided that little bit of unpleasantness from earlier."

"Sorry, but I didn't really want a lot of people to know it. I told Henry of course because it's him mom and if he had a problem with it then that would be something I would have to address first before going out with Regina. Tink warned me that just because I found out who my soul mate was, it didn't mean that person would know I was the one for them. I guess I believed that showing up at Regina's door like I did tonight would be the sort of grand gesture needed to tell her that."

"What makes you think a grand gesture would work on Regina?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, I guess because she's a woman and we women tend to like it when someone goes out of their way for us. That and she was a queen so she is probably used to grand gestures."

"I think in this case, we're going to have to start simple and build from there," Will said. "The first step is an apology."


	6. Chapter 6

Emma had flowers delivered to Regina's home on Saturday as an apology. When she arrived Sunday night to drop Henry off, she found those flowers sitting on the porch. When Regina answered the door, she let Henry in and then promptly shut the door as Emma tried to apologize.

On Monday, it was more flowers delivered to Regina's office. By the afternoon they were sent to the sheriff's office – the card had been untouched.

On Tuesday Emma waited outside of Regina's office for an hour trying to get in to talk to her, but she finally left out of frustration.

On Wednesday she picked Henry up after school so they could spend a few hours together. He said his mother had been quiet most of the week although he heard her talking somewhat loudly on the phone with Will earlier in the week. Emma knew about that as Will had called her. Apparently Regina wasn't happy that Will was now backing away from dating her because he believed that Emma was telling the truth about the whole soul mate thing.

It told Emma that Regina clearly didn't believe her.

When she dropped Henry off that night, she again went to the door but had it shut in her face once more.

On Thursday, Emma had a public safety committee meeting to attend where she hoped to speak to Regina afterward. But Regina excused herself near the end of the meeting telling everyone she had to leave early for personal reasons. Emma almost followed her out.

This was not a weekend for Emma to have Henry but on Friday night she showed up on Regina's doorstep once more. Henry answered it.

"Is your mom here?"

"Yeah, but she already said I am not supposed to let you in here."

"Well lucky for me, I am bigger than you," she said coming inside anyway. "Where is she?"

"Kitchen."

"Thanks."

She headed into the kitchen where Regina was leaning with her back against the counter with a glass of wine in her hand.

"Miss Swan!"

"Before you go all ballistic on me, this isn't how I wanted to do this, but since you have been ignoring every other attempt you didn't leave me any choice."

"I am going to ask you nicely this once to leave."

"I am not leaving until you talk to me."

"We have nothing to say to each other."

"I disagree," Emma said.

"Too bad."

"Look, I get it, I messed up, but does that mean you should just ignore me or discount the idea that you and I might be good together?"

"Like I said we have nothing to talk about. Please leave," Regina said drinking down the rest of her wine and then turning her back to Emma and rinsing it out in the sink.

Emma stood there a moment wondering if she should leave.

"Is it really so crazy to think that I might want to go on a date with you?" she asked.

Regina turned to look at her. "Why? Because you are under some delusion that we are soul mates?"

"Fine, you don't believe we are soul mates; that's ok. Even if we aren't, why won't you go out on a date with me?"

"This conversation is ridiculous," Regina said headed toward the doorway. Emma blocked her.

"Answer the question and I will leave. Why won't you go out on a date with me?"

"Because I don't want to go on a date with you. There I answered your question."

"Yeah, I guess you did," Emma said turning and leaving.

Regina waited a moment before leaving the kitchen. She went to the front door and locked it, looking out a window to make sure Emma had indeed left.

"Are you still mad at her?"

She turned to see Henry standing there.

"It's complicated," she replied.

"She messed up, didn't she?"

"That would be putting it mildly."

"If she hadn't though, would you have gone out with her?"

Regina sighed, "I don't know. I am afraid your other mother presumes too much."

"I don't understand. She said you are her soul mate, isn't that supposed to mean something?"

"Firstly, I wish she hadn't told you that. Secondly, her problem is putting faith in that concept of a soul mate and then presuming I would go along with it. She can't simply show up here and expect I am going to date her because she thinks we should because one night she decided to indulge in some fairy dust. It's insulting."

"I don't think it's insulting. I think it's kind of cool."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I mean you are both my moms so it would be cool if you two were together."

"I am afraid I don't see that happening," Regina replied. "It would require your mother to have something she lacks – tact."

…

Emma got up early Monday morning to go to work and then worked a 10-hour shift. She needed to keep her mind off of Regina, something she had been unsuccessful in doing throughout the weekend.

She didn't think Regina would be this resistant to the idea of them going out together. They had been getting along fairly well as of late, which Emma thought Regina should take as a good sign. Not to mention the whole soul mate thing.

Once she left work she went to The Knave. She was beginning to feel like a regular – not exactly a good thing. She sat at the bar where Will was tending it.

"Still a no go with Regina?" he asked putting a beer down in front of her.

"I haven't tried since Friday." They had spoken after that debacle.

"She will come around."

"What makes you think that?"

"I am an optimist."

"I'm not. In fact I am beginning to think I shouldn't have ever have messed with that fairy dust."

"You wanted to know who your soul mate was, nothing wrong with that," Will said. "Too bad for you it just happened to be the most stubborn woman in the world."

Emma gave him a small smile. Will was beginning to grow on her and she felt like he was the only one she could talk to about this.

"If she could just see that I am her soul mate too then I think it would go a long way toward fixing this situation," she said.

"Then that is your answer," he responded. "Get her to see that you are her soul mate."

"Sure, I will just go see Tink, get some more fairy dust and douse Regina with it."

"Sounds like a plan," Will said smiling.


	7. Chapter 7

Emma let Will do all the talking with Tink because she wasn't really sold on this plan of dousing Regina with fairy dust. She was pretty sure that she had already offended Regina and doing this wasn't likely to curry her any favors. Although she did believe Regina would have a hard time rejecting her once she knew for sure that she was indeed her soul mate.

"I would like to help," Tink said. "But I can't. As I told Emma, my supply of fairy dust is quite low. Even if it weren't, I would not feel comfortable in forcing Regina to see Emma as her soul mate when she is clearly not ready to see it."

"Wait," Emma said, suddenly more interested in this. "Didn't you essentially force Regina to see Robin as her soul mate the first time around?"

"Yes, but at the time I used the fairy dust on Regina, she was ready for it. She was at a crossroads in her life. She was ready to choose a direction. Did she choose the one I had hoped for? No. But it was her choice. It was her choices and really your choice to save Marian that led us to where we are now. I think we can all agree that Robin is no longer her soul mate because of those choices. What you are asking me is to force her to see you as her soul mate in hopes of making her choose you. I am afraid that is something you will have to get her to do on your own."

"Great, so I am still screwed," Emma said. She got up and walked out.

Tink looked at Will. "I really do wish I could help her," she said.

"It's ok," he said. "Those two will get together eventually."

"You don't seem upset since you were the one who was supposed to be going on a date with Regina."

Will shrugged. "I don't want any part of messing with soul mates. I can't imagine it would end well if I did. I mean the sheriff does carry a gun."

Tink smiled at him. "Try and talk Emma out of doing anything rash – to you or anyone else. I am going to go talk to Regina."

"Do you expect that will make a difference?"

"I do not know. Regina and I have an interesting history."

….

Tink was a little nervous about knocking on Regina's door the next day. She had given thought to how to broach the soul mate subject with Regina and each time she did, she didn't think it was going to go well.

After all, it didn't go well the first go around with the two of them.

While they seem to have put all of that behind them, Tink was still nervous.

"Tink?" Regina said after opening the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping that I could talk with you about something."

"Sure," Regina said. "Come in."

Tink followed her into the house and they settled down on the couch in the living room after Tink turned down an offer of something to drink.

"So what can I help you with?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Emma actually."

Tink watched as Regina's features hardened a little. "Did she send you here?"

"No she did not. I am here on my own to talk about this situation with you or just listen if you want someone to listen."

"I appreciate the offer," Regina said. "But I don't want to talk about it." Regina stood up as if the conversation is over. "There isn't anything to talk about anyway. I mean this is absurd. I don't know what Miss Swan was thinking. Why would she even come to you for fairy dust? And how do we know it worked and she even saw anything? It makes no sense. She and I – it makes no sense. I am the reason she was raised without her parents. She and I were at war practically. Sure we have been getting along but soul mates, no, it's not possible."

"Why isn't it?" Tink asked.

Regina looked at her like she was had just suggested the world was flat. Yet Regina didn't respond at first. In fact, she sat back down in silence.

"You know if I had just walked in and introduced myself to Robin all those years ago, things would have been different. I wouldn't have become who I became and maybe when Snow met her Prince Charming they would have gotten married, had Emma and raised her there at home. All because I didn't embrace the idea of my soul mate back then, it changed everything."

Tink reached over and put a hand on Regina's hand. "You don't know that and thinking about it won't help matters."

"But what if I make the same mistakes all over again?"

"That won't happen because you aren't the same person you once were."

Regina seemed to consider it. "Do you really believe she saw me as her soul mate?"

"I don't know why she would lie about it," Tink said.

"Neither do I," Regina conceded.

"I can't believe I am going to suggest this, but do you want some fairy dust to discover if she is your soul mate?" Tink asked.

….

Emma hadn't seen Regina since that disastrous evening where she tried to apologize to her. She had asked Henry how Regina was doing when she picked him up from school on that Friday since it was her weekend with him. Henry told her that Regina had been quiet all week, but not in an angry or depressive way, but more like she had a lot on her mind and was thinking it through.

Emma supposed this was better than an angry Regina.

The weekend passed by and Emma was now driving slowly toward Regina's house to drop off Henry. She was planning on parking her car on the street and letting Henry out. She figured avoiding Regina was probably for the best right now. She hadn't given up on the idea of her and Regina being together, but she also figured that it wasn't the right time to approach Regina again.

They arrived and she parked the car.

"I will see you Wednesday," Emma said to Henry.

"Yep," he said getting out of the car.

Emma was watching him which is why she noticed Regina walking toward them. She didn't figure this was going to be good. Henry was out of the car and walking toward his other mother and they paused briefly next to each other. Emma watched as Regina said something to him and then strode forward once more.

Crap, Emma thought, this was definitely not going to be good.

She was surprised when Regina opened the passenger side door and took the seat Henry had just vacated.

"Hi," Emma said as Regina hadn't said anything and was actually looking straight ahead and not at Emma.

"Ok," Regina said.

"Ok, what?" Emma asked in confusion.

"I will go out on a date with you," Regina said. "Pick me up at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Don't be late."

With that Regina exited the car and walked away. Emma sat there too stunned to move for several moments.

It wasn't until her mind registered what Regina had said that she was able to concentrate long enough to put her car in gear.

She was going on a date with Regina. She was going on a date with her soul mate.


	8. Chapter 8

Emma was beyond nervous as she pulled up to the mansion that Saturday night. The last time she had done this in order to take Regina out on a date, she hadn't been nervous like this. All she had been able to think about all week was going on this date with Regina and now that it was here, she thought she might pass out from nerves before it even started.

She was five minutes early, which she felt was an acceptable time. She got out of her car and approached the house. She was wearing jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt. Regina had left where they were to go up to her in one of the short conversations they had this week. Emma had decided they should both keep it casual.

She rang the door bell and Regina promptly answered it.

"Hi," Emma said, immediately feeling like an idiot for not having something better to say.

"Good evening Miss Swan, shall we go."

"Um … yeah," Emma said moving out of the way to Regina could exit. Emma couldn't help but sneak a look at Regina's ass as she was locking the door. Thankfully she looked up before Regina caught that look. "You look really good."

Regina was wearing a pair of gray slacks with a white sweater. "Thank you," Regina responded, although she didn't say anything in regards to how Emma looked.

They walked to the car and Emma had the wherewithal to jog up ahead and open the door for Regina. Knowing Regina didn't care for her Bug, Emma borrowed her mother's car for the date. Once Regina was in, Emma hurried around to her side of the car and got in.

"I thought we would go to eat at that Italian place on Maple," Emma said. "Is that ok?"

"Yes, it's fine."

They were completely silent on the drive over which set Emma's nerves on fire. She parked the car at the restaurant but made no move to get out of the car – neither did Regina. Both women just sat there breathing.

"Do you not want to do this?" Emma asked, and she was surprised by the look of surprise on Regina's face when the brunette turned to look at her.

"Sorry, I am just … nervous."

"Yeah, me too."

More silence.

"Why are you nervous?" Emma asked.

"I don't know; why are you?"

Emma shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I feel this pressure to do this right because if I don't do it right then you aren't ever going to want to go on another date with me. And frankly I'm not sure why you agreed to go on the date in the first place because you said you didn't want to date me. What changed your mind?"

"Tink came to speak to me," Regina said. "She and I talked about this, about you and you using the fairy dust. She asked me if I wanted to use what little she had left in order to see if I would see you as my soul mate."

"And did you?" Emma asked after Regina paused for what seemed like an eternity to her. Regina wasn't even looking at her at this point but then she turned and faced her.

"I did not," Regina stated.

"Oh."

"It was tempting, and maybe if I had it would make this whole situation easier, but you need to understand that the concept of a soul mate – it's not something I am thrilled about exploring," Regina sighed. She bit her bottom lip for a moment in a move that Emma found adorable even the circumstances for it didn't seem to be favorable for her. "When Tink first came to me back in the Enchanted Forest and gave me the chance to meet my soul mate, I didn't take it. It would be simple to say I didn't do it because I was so focused on wanting revenge against Snow. That wasn't all of it though. You met my mother so you caught a small glimpse of how domineering she could be. I grew up with that – grew up with my mother trying to mould me into someone I wasn't. She took away the choice I made – the choice to be with Daniel. Then here was Tink showing me Robin, my supposed soul mate, and it just felt wrong. It felt like if I had walked in there and met him that I would again be giving up my choice and handing it over to fate, and from that moment on fate would make my choices. It's not what I wanted."

"So when I show up at your door proclaiming to be your soul mate, I made you feel like you had no choice," Emma said. "No wonder you didn't want to go out with me."

"Sorry," Regina said.

"Then what are you doing here now with me?" Emma asked.

"Having dinner if we ever get out of this car."

Emma smiled at her, and exited the vehicle, running around to open the door for Regina.

"Thank you," Regina said.

"You're welcome."

They sat down and ordered their food. Throughout dinner they didn't speak of soul mates or anything about them dating or having a relationship. They talked of other things – what Henry was like growing up, town matters and gossip and Emma told her some stories of what it was like when she was a bail bondswoman.

After dinner Emma drove her home thinking that dinner was pleasant and after they had gotten over that initial nervousness they were both able to be themselves.

"Do you want to come in for a drink?" Regina asked her.

"Is it the best apple cider I have ever tasted?" Emma said with a smirk.

"How about something stronger?"

Emma nodded and again went to open the car door for Regina. She felt more of her nerves creeping back in as they neared the house. From outward appearances she would say Regina seemed as calm as could be and had since they had entered the restaurant. Emma wondered if she was really that calm and collected or if Regina had merely perfected the look of it. Then she wondered if she should test Regina to find out for sure.

A small smile graced her lips and it wasn't just from getting another glimpse of Regina's ass as she unlocked the door.

They went into the main room and Regina invited Emma to take a seat while she went to get them their drinks. She came back in carrying two glasses of wine, giving one to Emma before taking a seat on the other end of the couch.

"Good wine," Emma said after taking a drink.

"It's good, but I find the wine of this world doesn't quite have the same strong flavoring of what we had back home."

Emma smiled a little wider.

"What?" Regina asked, noting the grin on her face.

"Nothing, I just like how casual you are when you speak about the Enchanted Forest. Not a lot of people in this town are like that. Some don't ever mention it like it was never a part of their lives, others like my parents make it sound like some sort of romantic getaway where nothing bad ever happened, but you, you talk about it with an ease that I really like. Especially since my two experiences there weren't the greatest."

"It had its flaws, it had its advantages, much like this world does," she said. "There are things about it that I miss and many things I do not."

"What do you miss about it?" Emma asked as she settled back into the couch.

Regina gave it some thought before speaking. "I miss the wide open patches of land. While my father had his homestead and we had the village nearby, there was a lot of green pastures as far as you could see. There was a wildness about it that I don't feel here. Growing up all I ever wanted to do was get on a horse and tear across those fields as fast as I dared push the horse. Then sometimes I could just as easily ride a slow clop, taking in everything around me."

"Was it safe for you to do that, go off on your own?"

"I never really thought about whether it was safe or not," Regina shrugged.

"But weren't you like royalty; didn't you have bodyguards?"

Regina laughed, "My father was a title holder yes, but in the great scheme of things he was minor nobility. Even those who had titles in the Enchanted Forest were sometimes impoverished. Now I am not saying I grew up in poverty, far from it, but we weren't sipping wine from golden goblets either."

"I really want to kiss you right now,"

"What?" Regina said, nearly dropping her wine glass.

Emma chuckled, yep she thought, calm and collected as a bit of an act for Regina. "I said I really want to kiss you right now."

She put her own wine glass down on the coffee table and scooted closer to Regina who had the cutest scared/confused look on her face that Emma had ever seen. She took Regina's wine glass and also set it down.

"Is it ok if I want to kiss you now?"

"Yes," Regina breathed out.

Emma placed her hand so she was holding Regina's neck with her thumb along her jaw line as she leaned in and kissed her.


	9. Chapter 9

Five years later

"Regina!" Emma called out from the kitchen.

Regina appeared a few seconds before Emma almost yelled her name again. "Would you not yell like that, I just got your son down for some sleep," Regina said.

"Yeah, well your daughter made another mess," Emma said standing up where Regina could barely contain her laugh at the food now gracing Emma's shirt. "I need to go change before I go into work."

"How many times do you have to be reminded not to try and feed her while wearing your work clothes?" Regina said, approaching her wife and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Go change, but try not to wake Cameron by running up the stairs."

"Bossy much," Emma said with a grin.

"You didn't complain about my bossiness last night in bed," Regina winked at her.

"Not in front of the kids," Emma said with exaggerated shock.

She left the kitchen and barely remembered not to go running up the stairs. She took off her shirt as she entered the bedroom and went rummaging in the closet for something to wear. Pulling on her shirt she glanced in the mirror to make sure all was well and remembered to put her dirty shirt in the hamper. She paused a little thinking about how much this one room had changed over the years.

The first time she was in it she found it to be immaculate. The bed was always made when she came up here with Regina when they were dating. At first, small amounts of Emma began to creep into the room until Regina graciously decided to give her a drawer. Even when they made the decision to move in together Regina kept things neat and tidy – and tried to get Emma to do the same.

Now the room still looked tidy but not immaculate.

Sometimes Emma forgot to put her wet towels in the hamper and Regina tried to keep the bed made at times but it was no longer an every day occurrence.

Emma thought about all the special times in that bed – the first time Regina and her were together, which happened much quicker than Emma ever thought it would be based on how they started out dating. Then there was the night after Emma had proposed to Regina out at the town line.

Regina had asked her why she chose that location to propose and Emma explained that her whole life had changed when she had crossed that town line the first time with Henry. She spoke of how much it meant to her that Regina had stood there and given Emma and Henry memories of a life together when they had to flee Storybrooke. And she said with a smirk there was that one time when they had gone out of town for a date and Emma had pulled off the side of the road before entering the town line and they had sex in the car.

They had also had their wedding night in that bed before leaving the next day on their honeymoon. It was also in that bed that they talked about having other children and Regina had cried as she explained to Emma why she couldn't have children. Emma had held on to her the whole night never wanting to let her go.

In the end, they had decided on adoption and so the twins Cameron and Cassie came into their lives.

That first night neither Emma nor Regina had wanted to let go of their babies and so they had laid in bed holding them before Regina finally decided they had to put them down in the nursery. Emma was overjoyed at doing all the things she missed out with Henry. Even when it meant extra loads of laundry because Cassie was a finicky eater who liked to throw her food at Emma. She never did it with Regina for whatever reason yet that morning Regina had been busy trying to get Cam down to sleep. Emma was still tired from being up all night with the kid, but it was her turn and she wouldn't trade it for anything.

She left the bedroom and quietly crept into check on Cam. He was a deep sleeper when he slept – taking after Emma – and Emma smiled as he had his stuffed elephant tucked up next to him. She had gotten him the elephant when he was a baby and he absolutely would not sleep without it. She told Regina she was afraid his college roommate would make fun of him when he took that off to school with him. Thankfully that concern was years down the road.

Emma left the room and stopped at Henry's door, breathing deeply as she thought about her son being so far away. He had gone away to college – having graduated high school just that spring. Emma had cried way more than Regina had at both the graduation and when they dropped him off at Boston College. He had been there two months now and was having a great time. They texted and each week they Skyped so he could talk to not only his mothers but his siblings.

She was looking forward to him coming home for the holidays. Maybe they could put him on babysitting duty so she could take her wife out for a date.

Emma returned to the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe as she watched Regina feed Cassie without any issues. She walked over and sat down at the table.

"Don't you need to get going," Regina said.

"I will in a moment," Emma said. "You can't blame me if I want to sit for a few minutes and watch my wife and daughter."

Regina leaned over and they shared a kiss.

"Do you ever think about it, about how we started out and how far we have come?" Emma said.

"Well I try not to dwell much on how we started out – at least as far when you first came to Storybrooke and broke my curse. But yes, I think about it. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. I was just upstairs and I thought about how the bed always used to be made and the dozens of other changes to just the house since we started dating. Then there is you stepping down as mayor and Henry learning to drive and becoming an adult. It all seems surreal sometimes. Do you ever feel that way?"

"I guess. I mean whoever thought I would co-write two best-sellers with your mom of all people," she said.

"Hey people love those fairy tales told for the modern audience," Emma said. "Especially the first one where the Evil Queen falls for the Savior."

"Did you even read the book – if you had you would know the Savior falls for the Evil Queen," Regina smiled.

"She sure did," Emma smiled. She stood up. "I better get to work. I will see you at lunchtime." She bent down and gave Regina a kiss and then gave Cassie a kiss on her head. "Bye baby girl."

She made it only as far as the kitchen door before she turned.

"Regina."

"Yes?"

"Do you remember our first date?"

"Of course," she asked.

"You told me that night that Tink had offered you fairy dust so you could see if I was your soul mate yet you turned down the chance."

"Is there a reason you are bringing this up?"

"Well I've always wondered. Without the fairy dust, when did you know I was your soul mate—like knew, knew I was your soul mate?"

"Do you really want to know?" Regina asked getting up and coming over to her.

"Yes, I do."

"The truth is I lied to you that night of our first date."

"You did use the fairy dust."

"No, that wasn't the lie. The lie was why I didn't use it. The truth is I have known you were my soul mate since you showed up at my door to take me on the date that Will was supposed to take me on," she said. "I knew when you told me. I knew it because I knew you wouldn't lie about something like that and despite our past I knew you wouldn't intentionally hurt me. I knew because when you looked at me that night when I opened the door, that your eyes shone with this brightness I hadn't seen before directed at me."

"But if you knew why did you put me through that bit of hell? I thought you were never going to speak to me again, much less date me."

"First of all, I put you through that bit of hell because you deserved it. Showing up like that and presuming I would just go out with you," she said. "Secondly, by now you should know that sometimes I just need to step away from a situation. I've made too many mistakes in my life because I didn't step away and this was one thing I didn't want to mess up. I needed that time to have an internal debate about you being my soul mate. I believed you when you said it, but I didn't believe I was worthy of it so I told myself it wasn't true and that you were crazy. I told myself all the things I needed to tell myself so I could accept it if it didn't work out. I needed an out that said I wasn't your soul mate in case I did stumble along the way. But I always believed it was true, I just didn't want to believe it at first if that makes any sense."

"It does," Emma said. "Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome. Now get to work."

Emma gave her another kiss. "Maybe when I get home tonight and the kids are asleep I will let you use your bossy voice on me again," she smiled.

"Out," Regina commanded.


End file.
